What kind of game were you looking for to punctuate your holiday weekend? Oh, seriously? Gaudy? Well, here comes the Washington Capitals and their brawl with the Tampa Bay Lightning to auspicate your weekend. (yeah, we made that word up.)

The Caps’ score summary is kind of a chore, but prepare yourself anyway. First, John Carlson scores off of MJ90’s face-off. Second, then John Erskine sinks one that baffles Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith. And from there, the Capitals unleash el furio. Here’s your goal recap: Alex Semin scores at will, and no one else is capable. Tom Poti capped it off with a spit in the eye, making this 6-and-0 victory. So all of y’all asking about the best team in the league? Keep asking: Caps beat Bolts 6-0.

Alex Semin scored three goals in the second period just to piss off your fantasy team. Yes, a contract floats before him like an apparition. Alex secured the first NHL natural hat trick in all of 15 days (Jeff damn Carter precedes him.)

Nicky Backstrom holds a preternaturally smart angst for the Bolts.

Tom Poti‘s mousetrap maneuver might have set the the standard for the night by saying only these few goals are acceptable.

Consider every missed goal attempt by the Bolts an attempt at charity by the home team.

Scratch-eligible Eric Fehr did his best to shut any argument that might earn him a scratch next go-round. Seeing zero shots against in nearly 2 minute of TBL PP time might hit the spot. In a game where the Caps saw more scoring chances on the PP (6) than at evens (5), Eric Fehr was on the ice for none of them despite getting 1:48 of PP time — not going to cut it.

Congratulations to Marcus Johansson for playing the best NHL game of his career.

Joe B's suit-of-the-night

The most recent iteration of the Carlzner line (John + Karl) held Tampa Bay’s top line of Stamkos and St. Louis to a humbling zero goals. Boyd Gordon & Semyon Varlamov performed well above expectations to shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Capitals beat- handily no less- what may be the best team in the national hockey league. The Bolts fell to the Caps with little more than a whimper. So huzzah to the Capitals for triumphing over the second-best team in the league on the night after Thanksgiving.

Have a great holiday, friends, and please forgive us forgive us for having a few tonight.

Great game. Our most complete game of the season. Tampa Bay is pretty high scoring team, so holding them off the board is an accomplishment. I wouldn’t call them the best team in the league though. I think Philly is the team to beat right now (besides the Caps).

Nice to see Varly back and playing well, although he didn’t face too many shots tonight and had great play in front of him. But he still had some impressive saves. Now the question is, can he stay healthy?

Abhi

My takeaway:
-Caps played what looked to me like the first full 60 minutes in a while
-Lots of good fights
-I didn’t get to see a single goal. It always happened when I looked away or flipped during what I thought would be a long commercial break.
-Auburn’s secondary is terrible (wait, what?)
-By the way, there was a corner of the ice where EVERYBODY fell. Somebody didn’t do their job right tonight.

-Also, David Gregory was spotted at the game. I think between RMNB’s statistical analysis and having David Gregory, the Caps can lay claim to the title of “most intelligent fanbase”

Josh

As always, excellent recap.

I noticed something tonight about Ovechkin. He seemed to be playing closer to last years Ovechkin in the first period, making the big hits and really going after the puck. As such, he seemed to have more room in the offensive zone and was not being swarmed as much as he’s been this season. It was good to see, only going to be a few games before he goes off and hangs 4 or 5 goals on somebody…

http://crzyjewishotaku.deviantart.com Rachel Cohen

What a game, couldn’t have asked for a better one to be in attendance at! We played a whole 60 min. for the first time in forever, and this definitely was their best game of the year so far (in my opinion). Glad to see Varly play again, too.

Also, Erskine AND Poti scoring in the same game. When is that ever gonna happen again? hahaha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWUV71G5W8g <—– after the game i was so happy about this game i blasted this song all the way to clarendon to dance my hockey happies out ( sometimes things are old but classic signatures of "Awesome" like this song and semin doing sin bin hat tricks and making up for them later with real hat tricks) <3 but lets not forget about VARLY who was h-b-i-c of the net 2nd game in a row!!! <3 dobro pozhalovat"! <3

barb

i have one thing to say about this game…

wheeeeeee!

Em

GOD, I love you guys. Thanks for the recap since I missed the game!

Fedor Fedin

ALWAYS BETTER WITHOUT FLASH. Trade him, trade him!

http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com Russian Machine Never Breaks

There was no uno seis in our faces. I updated the post.

-Neil

BobbyG

I hope I don’t double post. I’m trying again because I got an error message on my last attempt.

Excellent recap Peter!

Yes, it was a complete game, a full 60 minutes effort by the Caps, perhaps a perfectly played game in all aspects–offense, defense, and special teams. And perfect timing too–a totally dominant smackdown of a pesky division rival that wants to be where the Caps are, atop the Southeast Division. The Caps shut down the Lightning including Steven Stamkos completely, and made TB look like leftover Thanksgiving turkey giblets.

Ovie looked strong again too, a development that re-surfaced in the last game against the Hurricanes. It won’t be long before he joins Sasha Minor in scoring goals at will.

Speaking of Sasha Minor, it’s time to ramp up the write-in campaign for the All-Star team. How he was left off the ballot is a mystery, but if Caps fans unite, we might get him the selection he deserves.